Pepe the Frog, the viral meme that becomes a symbol of hate

This is the English translation of an article that appeared on the website (along with a similar one on the paper edition) of an italian newspaper on the 29th of September 2016.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160930112051/http://www.corriere.it/tecnologia/cyber-cultura/16_settembre_29/pepe-the-frog-meme-virale-che-diventa-simbolo-d-odio-veste-panni-donald-trump-8f0c5d3e-8628-11e6-9ddf-2c9d29242dcc.shtml

[title] Pepe the Frog, the viral meme that becomes a symbol of hate and plays Donald Trump.

[subtitle] The cartoon is born online in 2005 and immediately becomes viral. Used by an extreme right group to spread the white supremacy ideology and to prompt people to vote Trump, it's been inserted amongst the antisemitic images of the Anti-Defamation League.

[author] by Michela Rovelli

[body] It has a man's body but a frog's face. Its name is Pepe the From and it's one of the most widespread memes on the web. In the wake of the success of an icon born to amuse and without particular ambitions filled with political and ideological content. The funny amphibian, that became viral on the american users' social networks, has been seized and mutilated, [translator's note: the original word is not as cruent, literally would be translated as "mispronounced" but it wouldn't fit in English] it took political and ideological meaning, and it ended up on the list of hate symbols drafted by the Anti-Defamation League, an american organization founded in 1913 to fight antisemitism. The CEO Jonathan Greenblat clarifies that most of the representations aren't racist nor is it the initial drawing. «They have no shame. They're abusing of the image of a comic book character. They're exploiting its appeal to spread hate on social media. But simply posting the meme - the group clarifies - doesn't mean that someone is a white supremacist». It remains the case that Pepe found himself - unwillingly - becoming a defamatory symbol. How did it happen?

Pepe for Donald Trump
Pepe the Frog was also summoned in the US presidential election campagn. The extreme right «Alt-Right» - who declared their vote in favor of Donald Trump - published on Twitter a caricature of the «amphibian» version of the candidate in October 2015 with the subtext «You can't stump the Trump». He doesn't comment but retweets. And after Hillary Clinton, in September, defined half of the supporters of his opponent «deplorables,» the frog appeared again in another illustration, this time shared by Trump's son. The protagonists of the movie «The Expendables» become followers of the Republican choice (he's in the first row) and the poster's title becomes «The Deplorables.» Behind Trump Pepe can be seen, with an allusive blond hair. The Democrat commented: «That frog is more leftist than you could think.»

The web's most popular frog
Pepe the Frog was born on the web. Precisely on the american imageboard 4chan - amongst other things the place where Anonymous was born - a free space to publish pictures and place of discussion for manga enthusiasts. Here the cartoonist Matt Furie publishes the Boy's Club comic in 2005. Protagonist: the anthropomorphous amphibian. Liked by the net, enough to become in 2015 the most used meme on Tumblr. It spreads like wildfire, on Reddit and on Instagram. It arrives on Facebook as well. Pepe is reproduced with sad, happy, angry, pleased faces. Even Katy Perry uses it to explain her fans how she feels with «australian jet lag:» the frog obtains 10 thousand retweets. And here, at the apex of his success, Pepe the frog suddenly strips himself of his innocence to dress up as Adolf Hitler, a Ku Klux Klan member, and as an islamic terrorist or a spy from the russian Kgb.

The meme becomes racist
According to some the reason behind the «ideological» deviation of the frog is due to his excessive popularity amongst «normies,» or the normal users of the net, seen with contempt by geeks. In other words, it's become too mainstream. And the reaction was to give him an evil meaning, to ruin the game. Another explanation calls into question the whites, nationalists, antisemitists and nazists. [Translator's note: that lone "whites" as opposed to "white supremacists" is no mistake, the article says it like that, separating each of the 4 categories] Especially an extreme right group called «Alt-Right,» that describes itself as an alternative to trivial conformism. The «haters» took Pepe and recruited her in their ranks. [Translator's note: the "her" is, again, no mistake, Pepe is mentioned at as female in this line in the article. There's to be said that Frog is a female word in italian, that might be the reason, though the word itself isn't mentioned in the sentence.] The racist and vulgar versions of the amphibian have become viral on social netorks. And Trump, who doesn't disdain to wink at extreme right groups, accepted the meme version of the refusal of «politically correct.» So he even became a frog himself. With jacked, tie, and toupee.